Miracle Cure. 6-29-13

By the time I got to work, I looked even worse than I did in the photo yesterday. I jokingly asked a pharmacist friend, "So, do you have a miracle cure for poison ivy rash?" She immediately said, "Yes." I was a little shocked, but I went along with it. She proceeded to tell me about Zanfel cream and how wonderful it was. She was telling me about this person and that person whose poison ivy rash just went away in seconds. The Zanfel website was full of people touting its miracle powers. Unfortunately, she didn't have any samples, and she warned me that it was expensive, $30-40; so with that, I went right over to the hospital pharmacy to get some. 

I came back, went to our restroom, and started washing and rubbing. In some spots, rubbing was making it better. In other parts, the itch just wasn't going away. I was afraid to rub longer than 3 minutes. So, I rinsed it off. I was still itching, so about an hour later, I went back and tried some more. I was still itching. So, I went back to visit my friend to see how many applications of this stuff it was supposed to take. She called another pharmacist, and they decided I should wait until bedtime to try it again and use some hydrocortisone cream in the meantime.

About 1:30am, Boop woke me up wanting to nurse. Then, I started itching again and couldn't go back to sleep. I decided to take a Benadryl. When I looked in the mirror, it wasn't pretty.

I went to bed looking like the fellow in the 2nd photo. I woke up looking like the fellow in the 1st photo. Thank goodness I got up when I did. If I had stayed in bed all night, my eyes might have been swollen shut. Don't know how I could have managed that with a baby. At best, Zanfel did nothing; however, I suspect that I'm allergic to Zanfel, on top of the poison ivy. So, I guess I'll try to go to Urgent Care this morning before we go to the vet.

It's ON!! 6-28-13

I've had it. I'm ready to kick some herbal heiny. 
I did something very stupid last week. I was trying to clean out around the edge of my deck. And  with all of the time I played down in the country, I learned long ago. And I should have remembered. "Leaflets 3, let it be." It didn't dawn on me that I could encounter it in my humble little plot; so my radar wasn't even on.
My skin has been crawling since about 3:30am. I couldn't get any peace; so I figured I would get up and find a distraction. Apparently the stuff has just spread to my face. 

4am photo. Not sure if you can see the rash that is just developing on my face.
My face is a bit swollen, too. You can see a bit of the rash on my finger.

We've got 2 culprits here; so I can't just blame myself. Sure I was weeding with wanton abandonment, determined to get that tree and weeds cut out of some of my garden decor. However, my urushoil footprint was likely a bit low. After all, I was using some heavy gloves for most of the time. But the bigger biological terrorist is likely my little Winnie. 

Sure, she *looks* innocent enough!

Dogs aren't affected by poison ivy. They just carry it along to unsuspecting folks. So one of the 1st things I did this morning was email her groomer to see if we can get some of that hair cut off. The next thing I did was try to figure out how in the world I'm going to get rid of this stuff. Here are the results of my web search and other ideas for my shopping list:

• Dawn dishwashing liquid for Winnie's bath (check)
• Long rubber gloves to wash Winnie and to remove the offender (check)
• Plastic barrier with ground clips for around the shed to keep Winnie from getting underneath. Not sure how I'm going to get it stuck on--maybe hammer and brads?
• Black plastic tarp for covering weeds and compost pile, which is no longer any good.
• Maybe herbicide? I really don't like this idea, especially so near to my container gardens and with the baby
• Arrid Extra Dry spray. Yes, it will be hot out there in long sleeves and pants, but my 'research' tells me that this can help heal the rash
• Calagel. Again, to help heal the rash
• Large plastic bags to get rid of the offender
• An ocean of calamine lotion

So, it looks like a trip to Lowe's is in order. Winnie has a UTI; so I guess we'll hit Lowe's on our way back from the vet. It looks like I have A LOT of laundry to re-do this weekend. Grrrr!

On the Move. 6-26-13

These photos were taken in late May, but our photographer just returned from Iran. The election slowed down things a bit there. These are copied from a PowerPoint she sent.

If she's not on my lap, she is clinging to my knees.
This gets really challenging when I try to make dinner and slows me down a fair bit, in general.

San Francisco Easter Photos. 6-23-13

Curly girl with bunny from Aunt R

Look in her eyes: You can see she's just angling for mischief! 

Owie! 6-22-13

I took her to daycare, and while I was filling out her papers, she fell on her face--

or rather, on her nose! It's a little hard to see in the photos.

Thankfully, she's almost as good as new by now.

Dirty Girl. 6-12-13

 Woo-hoo, Beans and Rice!

Taking Stock at Month 16. 6-6-13

Here's what's happening at 16 months old:

• We have settled into a routine, which probably looks more like chaos to outsiders. I was surprised I was able to report weekly updates as long as I did. I was so far behind that I just gave up. Boop will be 17 months old in a couple of weeks. At least I could give an update before the month is over.
• Boop has just learned to say 'jes' and nod her head. It is a huge improvement over the indignant 'no' that I got in response to every question I asked. We have lots of great toddler words now, like 'MINE'. She's speaking in sentences, but I just can't understand her beyond the 1st few words. She probably feels the same about me. 
• One thing that she has clearly picked up from me is my 'what/why/how <insert incredulous phrase like what gives?!?, why are you in the dog crate?!?, why did you rip the screen out of the door?!?>' with palms up. She looks at me, turns her little palms up, and says 'wa-wa?!?'. 
• We have a few recognizable songs. There's the classic rocking chair song "Rock-a-Baby ah da dip dop", which I have previous featured. There's also Boop's old favorite "Baby, baby, bee" also known as "Baby bumble bee." She sings a lot, but I can't quite figure out the songs. 
• It seems that Boop and Winnie have been apparently UTI free, but it seems like I'm 'it' now, after my visit to the Urgent Treatment Center yesterday.
• I finally paid off my student loans this month, and I'm trying to save up money for braces and retirement. I'm a little obsessed with retirement, now. Does that tell you anything about the current status of my job? Well, everyone has their highs and lows in the working world, and this is definitely not a high point. 
• My friend, A, was nice enough to go out to dinner with us last night to help me get my mind off of things. A bit of African goat curry never hurts. We were both surprised to see Boop take the spoon and start digging in, especially when 1. she's not crazy about utensils, and 2. she would have none of the matoke when I tried to feed her.